The Aeolian Islands of Lipari and Salina

We woke up the next morning and headed to the train station straight after breakfast. We were catching the train to the port town of Milazzo, before getting on a hydrofoil to the Aeolian Islands, a small group of seven volcanic islands. The islands are all extinct volcanoes, aside from Stromboli which is constantly smoking and erupts frequently.

We were headed to Salina, the greenest island, and second largest after Lipari, (the busiest and most touristy island and the largest town). We were staying for four nights, and we decided to stop off in Lipari for the day to explore, and then head for Salina on the last ferry in the evening.

We arrived in Milazzo in the late morning and booked tickets for the next hydrofoil. The hydrofoils are fast ferries, and it takes about an hour and a half to reach Lipari and then a further 20 minutes to Salina.

I was a little nervous about getting on another fast ferry after our terrible experience in Capri, but luckily the water was calm and I had no issues with seasickness on the ride to Lipari.

The island was fairly deserted when we arrived, most of the shops in Sicily shut between 1.00 - 4.30 p.m., so it was a bit like a ghost town. Most people use Lipari as a base to tour the other islands, as there are lots of tour companies operating day tours to Stromboli and Panarea, the tiniest and most expensive island.

We wandered the empty streets exploring, before finding a place that was open for lunch and grabbed a couple of panini's to takeaway. Panini's were pretty much our staple lunch foods in Sicily. Cheap and delicious, they filled us up without making us too full for swimming, and you can pretty much grab one from anywhere.

After lunch we hopped on a bus and headed five minutes up the road to the small town of Canetto, which has a long pebbly beach and is good for swimming.

We wandered along past the beach clubs, and settled our newly purchased sarongs on a quiet patch. We were only going to be on Lipari for a few hours, so didn't feel like paying for a lounger, plus the pebbles were soft enough to relax on.

On the only real downside of our trip, we took turns swimming in the water as there was a dodgy looking guy hanging around who was clearly waiting for us to both leave our beach bag so he could steal it. 

After hearing so much about the crime in Sicily we were keeping a close eye on our belongings, but it would have been easy for someone less observant to have been a victim.

This was the only time we felt a bit wary however, and didn't have any other issues anywhere else in Sicily.

After a while the guy left, obviously realising we had seen what he was up to, and we were able to relax and enjoy our surroundings. From the beach we could see across to Panarea and Stomboli, in the middle of the above photo.

In the late afternoon we headed back to Lipari town, and booked tickets on the next ferry. We arrived at the port of Santa Marina in Salina at about 7.30 p.m. and caught a taxi to our hotel on the other side of the island in Malfa.

We had some amazing views of Lipari from the taxi, there are six extinct volcanoes on the island, and the road to Malfa goes right up the side of one, with some steep roads reminiscent of Capri.

We were staying in a small hotel and had paid a bit extra for a premium room with an amazing balcony overlooking the sea and with clear views to Stromboli and Panarea. We could see the smoke coming from the top of Stromboli from our room.

After arriving we spent a while just admiring the view from our balcony, before having to drag ourselves away to get ready for dinner.

Luckily we didn't have to go far, we had arrived on a night when our hotel serves dinner comprising of several courses. We had about ten minutes to wash the salt off us and get changed, before heading up to the terrace for dinner. 

We didn't realise how huge the meal would be, we had thought maybe it would be like a tasting menu, but it was an aperitif, followed by a starter, two other courses and then dessert. We were completely stuffed afterwards and were glad we only had to walk two minutes back to our room.

The view from the hotel terrace was beautiful, we could see both the sun rising and setting and we never got tired of the view in all four days.

We woke early the next day, due to our room facing the rising sun and having no curtains, and headed out to breakfast. The breakfast selection was amazing, with cereals, breads and spreads and lots of different types of cakes and biscuits.

After breakfast we headed down to Punta Scario beach just down from our hotel. We followed a long and windy path on the side of the cliff which led down to a small rocky beach.

Upon arrival we discovered, rather than the small pebbles of Canetto the day before, that there were huge boulders that made up the beach. We made our way down to the water without falling over, and discovered the locals had a fantastic idea for how to relax on the beach. 

They had lots of blow up mattresses and lilo's for rent, only 3 euros for the whole day, so Bradley and I rented one, which was easily big enough for two to share and spent almost the full day at the beach.

Unlike Cefalu, the water was lovely and calm and the rocks in the water were much flatter and made swimming easy. I was pleased to see the absence of sea urchins, they are pretty common in Mediterranean waters, but they freak me out at the thought of getting a big spike in my foot!

Enjoying my mattress!

Looking back up towards our hotel

In the late afternoon we headed back to our hotel and spent some time exploring the tiny town of Malfa before heading to dinner.

The town is easily walked in about 10 minutes, but has several nice restaurants and gelato shops, plus a supermarket were we stocked up on some wine and cheese to enjoy on our balcony the next day.

We really found in Malfa, and all of Salina, that there were very few tourists, most of the time we spent on the island we only saw locals. The Aeolian islands are a Unesco World Heritage sight due their amazing volcanic history, but still remain mostly untouched by tourism, aside from Lipari and Panarea.

We had dinner at a small restaurant in town, unfortunately it was too dark to take photos, our only light was a small candle. Nice and romantic, but not conducive to photo taking.

We watched the sun setting over Malfa as we headed back to our hotel after dinner. Upon arrival back to our room we discovered a little visitor, a yellow lizard had somehow found its way into our room. I don't mind these little lizards, they are everywhere in Italy, but it was very swiftly ushered out the door before we went to sleep!